Mayor Mick Cornett gives in-studio 4-min interview on Fox Business

[CaseyCornett]

Here is Fox Business' link on YouTube to Mayor Cornett's interview on the city's "Economic Strategy"
http://bit.ly/bg2SjC

[fuzzytoad]

stopped watching the instant she said "oak city"

[SkyWestOKC]

stopped watching the instant she said "oak city"

Over-reaction? We have all had this discussion before, it's not an insult. It's an pseudo-nickname. OKC, Oke (oak) City, etc. Not a big deal. Mound out of a mole-hill. What about OneOk? They pronounce themselves One Oak. No big deal.

[fuzzytoad]

it annoys the crap out of me..

jeez, never figured I'd get grief on this forum for *NOT* watching something on Fox News

[GoThunder]

Mick did a pretty good job but i felt like the interviewers seemed pretty skeptical. What is it going to take for people to think of OKC as a great up and coming city?

[SOONER8693]

Over-reaction? We have all had this discussion before, it's not an insult. It's an pseudo-nickname. OKC, Oke (oak) City, etc. Not a big deal. Mound out of a mole-hill. What about OneOk? They pronounce themselves One Oak. No big deal.

Agree.

[soonerguru]

I agree that I hate it. It makes me cringe; always has. I think it's the same for people in San Fran when someone says "Frisco." God they hate that.

[Larry OKC]

The first time I heard it was when one of your salesmen from Tulsa called us that. Discovered that people outside of OKC (Tulsans in particular, call us Oak City). Not sue if it is meant as some sort of slam or not. Also noticed they say it on airline flights. Always politely correct them on the way off the plane. When Al Roker started his recent morning show on the Weather Channel, one of the broadcasters called us Oak City and Mr. Roker corrected her.

[Kerry]

I agree that I hate it. It makes me cringe; always has. I think it's the same for people in San Fran when someone says "Frisco." God they hate that.

Those example don't both me near as bad as "Boomers" when talking about the Thunder. OK, now to watch the video.

[SkyWestOKC]

The first time I heard it was when one of your salesmen from Tulsa called us that. Discovered that people outside of OKC (Tulsans in particular, call us Oak City). Not sue if it is meant as some sort of slam or not. Also noticed they say it on airline flights. Always politely correct them on the way off the plane. When Al Roker started his recent morning show on the Weather Channel, one of the broadcasters called us Oak City and Mr. Roker corrected her.

it's no slam. Also, airline flights call it Oke City because that is what the FAA and the local radio radar controllers identify themselves as, "Oke City Approach." You guys seriously are taking it as a slam? It's just a name, a silly nickname. I guess you could also take offense to OKC, 405, O.K. City, and Okies. Seriously, it's a nickname and nothing offensive is meant by it. It's sad that this debate is starting up again, but I guess having a nickname is just too much for us.

[Spartan]

This whole Fox Business News set just feels really awkward in this clip.

[Larry OKC]

SkyWest

Like I said, i don't know if it is intended as some sort of slam (partic from Tulsans) or not. Haven't figured out where the slam part would be (if it even exists) other than an outsider coming up with a nickname for us instead of what we call ourselves. I have never heard anyone form OKC call it Oak City.

[Larry OKC]

Those example don't both me near as bad as "Boomers" when talking about the Thunder. OK, now to watch the video.

I agree completely. Have pretty much stopped reading anything by Mr. Trammel (Esp when it comes to the Thunder).

[ljbab728]

I found it interesting but not surprising, since this was on FOX News, that they identified Mayor Cornett several times as (R) or Republican in their printed onscreen information. Agreed he is a Republican but the OKC mayorship is not a partisan position.

[JH14]

Aside from an awkward set, this is a good interview. The Mayor does a good job selling OKC's strong points.

[progressiveboy]

Mick did a pretty good job but i felt like the interviewers seemed pretty skeptical. What is it going to take for people to think of OKC as a great up and coming city?

Face it. People from the East and West Coast will "always" thumb their collective noses at Oklahoma or anywhere that is not on the coast. What will it take for people to think of OKC as a great, desirable city? First, it did not help in the video interview with the interviewers talking about Oklahoma's disasters such as the floods, tornadoes, ice storms etc... it plants a seed in peoples minds that this is what Oklahoma City is known for so why should I move to a city that has one disaster after another? OKC must continue to overcome the negative sterotypes that are placed on their city and rise above it. Continue to attract major HQ to the city that will bring in major money and diverse people from different parts of the country. Continue to build attractions and most of all "clean up the city" as outsiders that drive through the city will get negative impressions and think OKC people do not have pride in their city.

[Larry OKC]

progressiveboy

I agree it can skew the perception, but if you were thinking about moving here wouldn't you want to know what to expect weatherwise? We DO HAVE tornadoes, ice storms, floods, drought, wild fires, record snowfall, etc. As the Mayor pointed out, just within the past 6 months, all for the OKC metro area. Then there was the record number of disaster declarations on a statewide level last year or 2 years ago. That is the reality of it.

How would you answer your question: "why should I move to a city that has one disaster after another?"

Think the disbelief was due to the fact that the rest of the country has been much worse off. The Mayor did a good job of explaining that too.

[Hondo1]

I might be offended if "Oak City" were being used in a derogatory fashion but clearly it was not. In spite of the tornado footage the piece was great. This is valuable publicity the city needs to eventually change negative perceptions.

[blake]

I might be offended if "Oak City" were being used in a derogatory fashion but clearly it was not. In spite of the tornado footage the piece was great. This is valuable publicity the city needs to eventually change negative perceptions.

Agreed. The fact that national media is giving us airtime about something positive is great for us. Oak city drives me a bit nuts too, but really who cares.

[fvalente]

I don't refer to Tulsa as "Tuh", Anadarko as "Ana" or Stillwater as "Still", why must Oklahoma City be referred to as Oak City? Is Oklahoma City really THAT difficult to say?

[SkyWestOKC]

Tulsa = 2 syllables
Anadarko = 4 syllables
Stillwater = 3 syllables
Oklahoma City = 6 syllables
Oke (Oak) City = 3 syllables.

Oke (Oak) city rolls off the tongue much quicker and easier. Mind you, she only said Oke City once, and did say Oklahoma City a few times. I really do fail to see the big deal.

San Francisco is also referred to as San Fran or The Bay, I don't see them making a big fuss over it.

[fvalente]

Thanks for explaining that, I understand now. So is there a pre-determined limit on the number of syllables before we abbreviate? I'm guessing it's anything over four since Anadarko didn't need to be shortened.

It's NOT that big of a deal, I just wonder when we got so lazy that two words totalling six-syllables were too much of an effort.

[SkyWestOKC]

Well, the human tongue naturally skips syllables and words. Hence the American-English language.

"Do you want to go to the movies?" becomes, "D'wanna go to the movie?"

It's not really laziness, just when talking it happens. Unless you are very articulate and pronounce each word and syllable correctly, like Microsoft Sam.

If you can imply the same meaning in 3 syllables versus 6, why not? As long as everyone is on the same page and knows what you are talking about (did mention Oklahoma City in full a few times), using the nickname to get the point across doesn't seem that bad. I would have been offended if she didn't mention our city at all. "How does your city..." ... "Mayor of a city in Oklahoma" etc.

[jbrown84]

it's not an insult. It's an pseudo-nickname. OKC, Oke (oak) City, etc.

It's not insulting or a slam. It's just annoying because NOBODY here uses it. It's just pilots and a few random outsiders that picked up on it. If they want to abbreviate, they should call it O-K-C.

[b]But[/i] I wouldn't have shut if off just because of that.

(Tulsans in particular, call us Oak City).

Ironic since they like to say we have no trees.

I guess you could also take offense to OKC, 405, O.K. City, and Okies.

The difference is we actually call ourselves those things.

most of all "clean up the city" as outsiders that drive through the city will get negative impressions and think OKC people do not have pride in their city.

There you go again. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of the Golden, Spottless City of Dallas next time I'm coming through.